Research Guides: Art: Organize, write, cite

Organize with Zotero

Organize your references and full text-articles, annotate texts, add notes, tag themes, and/or create theme folders to help you critically analyze and synthesize your sources. Access instructions in the Zotero guide.

Academic writing: in the humanities, and in art

The Elements of Academic Style: Writing for the Humanities by Eric Hayot
Call number: PE1404 .H396 2014
From granular concerns, such as sentence structure and grammar, to big-picture issues, such as adhering to genre patterns for successful research and publishing and developing productive and rewarding writing habits, Hayot helps ambitious students, newly minted Ph.D.'s, and established professors shape their work and develop their voices. Combining psychological support with practical suggestions for composing introductions and conclusions, developing a schedule for writing, using notes and citations, and structuring paragraphs and essays, this guide to the elements of academic style does its part to rejuvenate scholarship and writing in the humanities.
A short guide to writing about art by Sylvan Barnet
Call number: N7476 .B37 2011
This text has guided tens of thousands of art students through the writing process. Students are shown how to analyze pictures (drawings, paintings, photographs), sculptures and architecture, and are prepared with the tools they need to present their ideas through effective writing. This text includes: Coverage of essential writing assignments includes formal analysis, comparison, research paper, review of an exhibition, essay examination; Clear step-by-step writing instructions guide students though the research and writing processes, showing students how to use the terminology of art history, and how to cite sources, solve issues of style, and use proper manuscript form; Sample essays, with analytic comments by the author, demonstrate the strengths of effective writing.
Writing about art by Henry M. Sayre
Call number: N7476 .S29 2009
This straightforward guide prepares students to describe, interpret, and write about works of art in meaningful and lasting terms. Designed as a supplement to Art History survey and period texts, this efficient book features a step-by-step approach to writing--from choosing a work to write about, to essay organization, to research techniques, to footnote form, to preparing the final essay.

Cite

Most art historical and scholarly writing uses the Turabian/University of Chicago citation style. Ask your instructor if this citations style or a different one (MLA, APA) is preferred for your writing project.

There are numerous online reference pages for Turabian/Chicago style that are easy to use. The Citation Quick Guide page from the University of Chicago and the Chicago section of the Purdue OWL are good places to start. You may need to consult the published version in some instances; it is available in Library at the Research Help Desk: Quick Ref LB2369 .T8 2018.

Citing works of art in a paper or essay presents some particular challenges. Turabian/Chicago has some guidance for this, found here.

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